Blog Posts in Category: Landscape

Nantlle Ridge

Alastair BegleyLandscape, North Wales, Walking Short Link

After a number of years of wanting to do the Nantlle Ridge, we finally ended up in North Wales with a weather window which would enable us to enjoy the ridge at it’s best. As the weather was best in the morning we started fairly early, which enabled us to see a beautiful sunrise as we were leaving the hut in Rhyd Ddu. The start of the walk soon woke us up, but once we were established on the ridge it was just brilliant. We had wonderful views in every direction and good weather, apart from the very strong wind! The scrambling was not extensive, but some of it was fairly involved if you stayed on the ridge crest rather than skirting off on the path to the side. The final section of ridge before the descent was fairly hard going underfoot, and if I were to do the ridge again I might have descended sooner. We had dropped a car at the end the night before, but somehow avoided having to do shuttle runs as Becky managed to hitch a lift with the only person we saw all day,. Read the full article…

2019 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, Landscape, Mountain Biking, Mountaineering Short Link

Last year was a year which was dominated photographically by snow, this year is unfortunately the polar opposite as winter never really turned up in the UK and weather didn’t allow us to spend that much time high up in the Alps in the summer. Despite the lack of snow it was another excellent year, with plenty of good walking, good photography, ski touring in the alps and excellent scrambling, via ferratas and climbing in the Italian Dolomites. Winter South of the border there was even less snow than in Scotland, however we were fortunate enough to make good use of the one snowy weekend with a walk in the Brecon Beacons. Other than the lack of snow we were lucky to have some excellent walking conditions while we were in the mountains, the highlight had to be walking up to High Raise from Grasmere in the Lake District. Scottish Winter We had a week booked in Scotland with the Avon Mountaineering Club, and there was absolutely no snow below the highest tops. Thankfully the lack of snow was made up for with a week of excellent weather, which allowed. Read the full article…

A frozen Rannoch Moor

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Scotland Short Link

After spending the night at the Kingshouse we enjoyed a leisurely morning eating breakfast with views over Buachaille Etive Mòr. After breakfast I cheated at wildlife photography by making use of the very tame deer which live near the hotel for some shots of deer in front of Buachaille Etive Mòr. We then left the hotel and stopped on Rannoch Moor to enjoy the scenery before heading back to Bristol.

Sunset from Mynydd Troed

Alastair BegleyLandscape Short Link

I had a weekend planned in the Brecon Beacons to celebrate a friend’s 30th birthday, and given the beautiful forecast on the Friday afternoon I decided to leave work early and head up Mynydd Troed for sunset. I was hoping for a fantastic view of the Dragon’s Back on the Black Mountains, but it just looked a bit rounded from high up and would have lost the sun too early. Thankfully the more classic view over Llangors Lake and the Pen y Fan massif was excellent. I still haven’t done much sunrise or sunset photography, so I feel like I learnt lots. The key things being that I don’t need to arrive so early, and that I should definitely stay later! The sunset turned out to be lovely, with a small bank of cloud on the horizon, which was thin enough to allow the sun through. Just after the sun had set I descended as I was cold and it was a bit later than I was expecting, but as I got back to the car I realised how much the sky had improved so shot a few more frames.. Read the full article…

Sunrise from the Cat’s Back

Alastair BegleyLandscape Short Link

My parents live just below the Black Mountains in Herefordshire, and they are lucky enough to have one of the best ridges in South Wales on their doorstep. On a map it just looks like a small spur on the edge of the Black Mountains, which I suppose it is but it more than makes up for it as it is a superb ridge with fantastic views to the north over the Golden Valley and to the south of Offa’s Dyke. After the recent snow, and with an excellent forecast for the next morning it seemed like a good opportunity to get out and try and capture the ridge during sunrise. Due to the snow getting to the start of the ridge was challenging and involved the snow chains, but it was certainly worth it.

2018 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, General, Landscape, Mountaineering Short Link

Looking back over 2018 it is safe to say that photographically it was a year dominated by snow for me. In the UK we had an exceptional winter which just went on and on, combined with my summer of road cycling which resulted in very few photographs and then an alpine summer which resulted in more snowy photographs. UK Winter Our winter in the UK started with a weekend trip up to Scotland to see some of our friends before they departed to New Zealand for 2 years. We had an enjoyable day walking before a day hiding from the weather. We then were able to make the most of the excellent winter by getting some winter walking done in the Lake District on the Avon Mountaineering Club’s annual winter Lakes trip. Unfortunately due to the quantity of snow it was not possible to climb, but it was certainly a beautiful day. It was then time for the annual AMC trip to Scotland. This year was the first time the AMC went to Torridon for a week. The week of the trip happened to coincide with the beast from the. Read the full article…

Autumn in North Wales

Alastair BegleyLandscape, North Wales Short Link

I headed up to North Wales with the Avon Mountaineering Club for the autumn north wales trip, a trip which often has really good weather. Unfortunately this year it was not to be and the weather was awful. We made the most of this by exploring the slate quarries in Saturday morning in between the rain, and on Sunday we went for a low level walk around Bedgellert. It was great to photography some of the autumnal colours with the moody clouds due to the poor weather.

Autumn in the South West

Alastair BegleyLandscape Short Link

Having recently upgraded my camera to a Fuji X-E3 I have been trying to get to know my new camera by making the most of Autumn. A few weekends ago we spent a very sunny weekend in south Devon, while the sun didn’t inspire too many landscape photos, I managed to get a few photos that I was pleased with. Back closer to home in Bristol we were lucky to have some high tides which coincided with sunset and also with some fairly good weather. It was great to get out and capture some of the classic photos of Bristol, I will have to have another go when there is slightly less of a breeze and when sunset is later in the evening so that it doesn’t coincide with rush hour.